The Portuguese royal court fled Europe in 1808 for Brazil so as to avoid the advancing armies of Napoleon. In 1816 after Queen Maria I's death the Prince Regent became King João VI of Portugal, but he remained in exile, establishing an absolutist monarchy.

An independence movement gathered some momentum, despite scientific, literary, artistic and military successes generated under the King's patronage. An uprising was suppressed in 1817 but the desire for a republic continued.

The King returned to Portugal in 1821 and left his 22 year old Prince Regent son as ruler in Brazil. Dom Pedro I was to disobey the Portuguese parliament by establishing a government and appointed the renowned José Bonifácio as Prime Minister.

On September 7, 1822 an announcement was made declaring Brazil an independent nation and Dom Pedro was invested as Emperor in December of the same year. I'm doubtful whether there have been any other generally peaceful, royalty-initiated beginnings to a new nation state in history. (The empire was dissolved in 1889 in favour of a federated republic).

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Debret is great. It's pity that they give so much emphasis to the history, with the cultural background and we just learn those things later.

You would like to see the exhibition that I saw years ago about those voyagers that came to Brazil to registry the images of the Portugal colony. Beautiful works. Let's see if I can find something on-line later.

The beginning of Brazil as a country is a great story Bibi.Hum... not so good, slavery, the Jesuits trying to canonize the natives, the Portuguese getting the gold and giving it to the English,our economical dependency of Portugal, and after UK, and US after! I know, it's normal, happened in most of countries, but I'm still sad about many things in our history.

Rio? Well, that's a good place for tourists, not for me. I think I can't survive for more than 1 month in a city smaller than São Paulo. Is Sydney bigger than here? I'm too cosmopolitan.

Bibi, you will forgive my having a romantic view of Brazil. I'm sure the history of the country has its depressing aspects, but the beginning - the declaration of independence from Portugal by a Portuguese royal member - that is very unusual in the world.

São Paulo = ~10 millionSydney = ~4 million

Maybe it won't be cosmopolitan enough for you!

(But you would be welcome! I think you will find enough here to keep you happy.)